Home > How to Guides > Installing Android on your Netbook, part 1.5: Frequently Asked Questions

Installing Android on your Netbook, part 1.5: Frequently Asked Questions

Friday 30th March 2012 by William Judd in How to Guides.

I’m still working on the next part of our guide to installing Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on a netbook, but for now here are the answers to a few commonly asked questions that I’ve encountered so far. If you’d like to read the original article which outlines the install process and why you’d want to even install Android on your laptop in the first place, then read it here.

How do I uninstall Android x86?

How do I shut down?

  • Press the power button twice, then select ‘yes’ on the box that appears.

Some apps are missing from the marketplace?

  • Yes, some are missing. There isn’t much you can do about this, except wait for either Android x86 to be updated or the apps to be marked as working on x86 systems.

My {wireless, keyboard, mouse, display } doesn’t work!

  • Try a different version of the Android x86 ISO, but it may be that your hardware isn’t compatible with Android x86.

I can’t boot into the installer, something goes wrong!

  • The most likely point of failure is the USB drive – try a different one.

Will this work on my { some laptop or netbook } ?

  • I don’t know – the best way is to try it for yourself, using the ‘Live CD’ boot option.

Android x86 running on a reader's netbook.

If you’ve got any other questions, feel free to ask them here in the comments below!

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  • John Knowlan

    The screen is turned sideways on some apps but not others. I am using an Asus netbook with android-x86-4.0-RC1-eeepc.iso or android-x86-4.0-RC2-eeepc.iso. I turned off auto rotation and it still does it. I am just running it off my flash drive to test things before I install it on a SD card or on the hard drive. Would it work correctly if it’s installed instead of running it from the flash drive? Any ideas? Thanks!

  • http://williamjudd.com/ William Judd

    You can if you like, but you can also do this in the Android x86 installer. Basically, you just want to leave some empty, unpartitioned space on the drive and point the installer to that.

  • Lucy Gordon

    do i have to partition my hard drive in windows before installing android?

  • http://williamjudd.com/ William Judd

    Hi Sam! No, I’m afraid I haven’t looked into that. A good place to ask might be the Android x86 project itself:
    http://www.android-x86.org/contact

    From what I understand they are still working on getting the core functionality down, so if touch-screen support isn’t included in one of the many builds that have been produced it is unlikely to be added quickly. But try all of the different releases and see – I bet at least one of them is made for a touch-screen tablet or notebook.

  • Sam

    Cheers for the really helpful guide! I am looking to install this on my acer aspire one netbook. However I also want to retrofit it with a touchscreen like many people have done. I have seen the touchscreen work with an standard laptop OS (eg XP/Linux) but am not sure whether it would be compatible with android. Have you looked into doing anything like this?

    thanks!

  • http://williamjudd.com/ William Judd

    Hi Jenny,

    Have a look at this page, it seems like what you’re trying to do: http://rootingandroid.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/triple-booting-android-x86-and-windows-78/
    Cheers,

    Will

    –
    William Judd
    Sent with Sparrow (http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/?sig)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jenny-Zilga/100000655980305 Jenny Zilga

    OK I’ve done live boot, its fine. Now I want to install. I am concerned about my GRUB will it overwrite it? I want to keep GRUB and have triple boot (win+linux+android)

  • http://williamjudd.com/ William Judd

    Turn off auto-rotation in the settings, then try locking and unlocking – that should reset it.

  • Gerardosdr

    the screen is rotated (it looks like a phone in that aspect instead of a tablet) how do i fix that?

  • http://williamjudd.com/ William Judd

    Have you tried the live CD option to check to see if it works? And with different ISOS? If so, then I can’t think of anything further v